


Absent Goodbye

by BlueMyrian



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Multi, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-20 01:33:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2410157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueMyrian/pseuds/BlueMyrian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A day in the life of Toph Beifong goes horribly, horribly wrong.</p><p>This fic does not comply with Legend of Korra canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absent Goodbye

Toph didn’t even try to argue that morning as Satoru got ready for work. She was nearly eight months pregnant now and several months ago her husband had finally put his foot down, demanding that she temporarily give up her maintenance visits to the factory and take it easy at school, insisting she avoid any intensive bending. She had tried to fight him on the matter, of course, but Satoru had been remarkably stubborn about the issue and she eventually gave in out of sheer respect. It wasn’t often that the nerd got so worked up about something other than his inventions and frankly Toph was flattered. 

That didn’t change the fact that sitting at home all day for months was incredibly boring. She amused herself at first by coming up with new exercises for her students to try, and occasionally trekking down to the school itself to make sure they weren’t slacking off, but these days it was a little more difficult. For one thing, Toph had never expected to get this big. It felt like she was constantly carrying around a huge boulder in front of her, only this was harder, and she still had nearly a month left. 

Sighing, Toph kissed Satoru on the cheek as he headed out the door and resigned herself to another boring day waddling around at home. Sitting back in her favorite chair, she waved her hand, sweeping a collection of small rectangular clay pieces off the shelf and standing them up one by one on their ends on the floor. She had discovered this little game a few days ago when she had accidentally knocked the playing pieces to the floor. Something about the sound and vibration as they hit the floor had been particularly pleasing to her. So Toph had spent the next few days setting them up in increasingly intricate patterns on the living room floor just to knock them all down and ‘see’ the impact of her little creations. It was good bending practice too. 

This little game easily ate up several hours as each piece had to be carefully placed, but Toph wasn’t the kind of person to sit still long and after a few rounds she started to get restless. Pushing herself out of her chair she grunted loudly and stretched. She put the playing pieces away, and went through her earthbending stances several times out of habit. She might be extremely pregnant, but that was no excuse for laziness.

Putting her hand to the window, Toph was pleased to find that the sun had warmed the glass considerably. It was a good day to get out of the house. Walking out, Toph locked the front door and turned one of the garden rocks around to indicate that she was out of the house, should anyone come looking for her. It was clever system, and Toph smiled thinking about how often Satoru was coming up with little ideas like this one to help her out. Life certainly had been much easier with him around.

Whistling loudly, Toph walked herself to the nearest park and claimed a bench in the sun, sitting back with her feet to the ground, just listening. The sun was warm on her face, and the grass cool on her feet. The birds were making a racket in the nearby trees and there was plenty of traffic nearby making the ground vibrate steadily with the passing of people, animals, and various other vehicles. Toph sighed. This was so much better than sitting at home in silence. 

There wasn’t much of a breeze, but Toph wasn’t bothered by the heat. It was relaxing, and with few people in the park to disturb her, it wasn’t long before she had drifted off to sleep. She regretted it, however when she awoke with a back ache, and her face tingling in a familiar way that let her know she had gotten burned. It was much cooler outside now too than it had been and Toph wondered just how long she had been sleeping as she dragged herself back home. 

Running water in the tub, Toph undressed, hoping that the warm water would undo the kinks her nap in the park bench had left her with. Letting her hair down, she slid into the tub and sighed. Ah, yes. She had never enjoyed baths so much before she had gotten pregnant. The buoyancy of the water, however, was just the relief she needed and she would be forever grateful to Katara for making the suggestion.

Toph wondered what her friends had been up to lately as she carefully brushed her wet hair and rubbed lotion on her face in an attempt to correct her earlier mistake. Toph would get occasional letters from the members of the Gaang, which Satoru would read to her with a smile. Katara, again, was her first and most frequent correspondent, being the first one to realize that living with Satoru meant that Toph had someone to read the letters to her.

The rest of the Gaang hadn’t been too far behind, though. Of course, she still enjoyed their in-person visits more but considering how much Aang and Zuko had on their plates it was understandable that they might not have enough time to swing by regularly. Toph frowned. Sokka had no excuses though, and he was always the hardest to get a hold of, always moving around. Most of the information Toph had about Sokka came from his sister, or the few times he had managed to remember to visit. But, she sighed, that was Sokka.

When the water in the tub started going cold, Toph dragged herself out and started the long process of drying and oiling her long hair. A inevitable sense of boredom snuck over her as she considered how boring it was being pregnant. She had managed to make it through most of today, but it was depressing to think that tomorrow would be the same, and the day after that, for another month. The days that Satoru had off of work were really the highlights of her week. She felt uncharacteristically clingy whenever he came home from work each day with his mind still distracted by his latest project, but on his days off he could afford to give her his undivided attention and she absolutely loved it. 

At least it would be worth it in the end, she thought, making her way to the kitchen. Toph had always wanted children, and she was genuinely excited by the prospect of raising a child with Satoru. If only the pregnancy itself weren’t so long. Toph rooted around in the kitchen for something to eat. Once food had been found, she settled back into her favorite chair to wait for Satoru to come home. 

It was hours later when Toph realized that she had fallen asleep again, woken up by the sound of frantic knocking at her door. Groggy and stiff, Toph yelled at door. “Shut up already! I’m coming.”

The pounding stopped but as Toph rose from her chair a cold chill went down her spine. She padded across the house to the door. Why hadn’t Satoru answered the door? Shouldn’t he be home by now? Frowning, Toph yanked the door open and felt her heartbeat rise in response to the other person’s racing pulse. This guy was really panicking. Something was wrong.

"What is it?"

The other man’s voice came, scared and shaking, from his throat.

"Toph. It’s Satoru… the factory… there was an accident."

It hit her harder than any punch ever could. Toph felt her legs go weak beneath her for the first time in her life, and her head spun with panic.

"W-what? What are you saying!? What happened!?"

"I’m sorry Toph. Satoru, he… one of the machines malfunctioned. He… he didn’t make it."

Toph screamed. This wasn’t happening. This could not be happening. It was a dream. She was having a pregnancy induced nightmare. This guy was pulling some cruel prank on her. There was no way it could be true. 

Toph sunk to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. She knew it wasn’t a lie. She always knew when people were lying and this man, this man had just told her the truth. When he reached for her she screamed again. 

"Don’t touch me! Get out of here!"

The ground rumbled and cracked beneath her and she could feel the man’s fear as he fled. She didn’t care. She didn’t care. She didn’t care. She was a rock, stone, she didn’t feel anything. She was crying and couldn’t stop. She couldn’t face this. It was impossible. Toph sat, sprawled on the ground, and for the first time in her life, she felt like she would never get up again. This time, this hit had been too hard. This time, she felt herself break.


End file.
